The film manages to take these dark feelings of shame and confusion, of family rejection and religious persecution and betrayal, and make it funny and cool and even a little romantic.

| Apr 30, 2024

1999’s 'But I’m a Cheerleader' had all the potential to be a devastating drama. With just a little tweaking here and there, the film’s campy, satirical edge could have been blunted into something more dire and harder to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 16, 2023

The film is infused with high-octane energy, larger-than-life humor and a cheeky John Waters aesthetic.

| Mar 21, 2022

This new release has been given a great Blu-ray transfer, but this 90's teen comedy remains a vanilla pantomime.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 28, 2021

Not everything comes off, but its sheer inventiveness and vibrancy is hard not to like.

| Jun 21, 2021

Quirky, funny and full of quotable lines.

| Feb 3, 2021

There is no groundbreaking comedy, yet the film is consistently funny.

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 4, 2020

An intentionally artificial romantic-comedy with a touch of memoir.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 6, 2020

I liked it well enough when I first saw it but remembered the actual humor as being predictable and insufficiently incisive. I thought more highly of it this time around.

| Jun 14, 2019

[But I'm a Cheerleader looks] like John Waters directing a hybrid of Private Benjamin and Girl Interrupted

| Apr 1, 2019

But I'm a Cheerleader is a smug little comedy that tries to mock other people's self-righteousness while ignoring its own.

| Mar 31, 2019

Lyonne makes the most of the material and But I'm A Cheerleader is a flawed-but-fun romp.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2019

I would have preferred to know more in documentary terms about the actual reality of these terrible camps, rather than sit through this heavy-handed and oddly lenient comedy.

| Mar 31, 2019

But I'm a Cheerleader often leans too hard on stereotypes in reaching for its laughs, but Lyonne and DuVall, who plays the tomboy Lyonne falls for, give nervy, on-target performances.

| Mar 31, 2019

First-time feature director Jamie Babbit's pink-drenched comedy is amusing and good-natured, but necessarily thin.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 31, 2019

It's hard to decide whether this is funny, offensive, satirical or all three.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2019

Lyonne blends hyperbole and sincerity in perfect proportions.

| Mar 31, 2019

But I'm a Cheerleader fizzles out of fresh ideas early on.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 31, 2019

As it happens, I couldn't agree more with the point of view of But I'm a Cheerleader, but I couldn't like the movie less.

| Mar 27, 2019

But I'm a Cheerleader, tries to be outrageous and inflammatory but falls pitifully flat.

| Mar 27, 2019